CHAPTER VIII

TRANSIENT bodies are only subject to destruction through their
substance and not through their form, nor can the essence of their form be destroyed;
in this respect they are permanent. The generic forms, as you know, are all permanent
and stable. Form can only be destroyed accidentally, i.e., on account of its connexion
with substance, the true nature of which consists in the property of never being
without a disposition to receive form. This is the reason why no form remains permanently
in a substance; a constant change takes place, one form is taken off and another
is put on. How wonderfully wise is the simile of King Solomon, in which he compares
matter to a faithless wife; for matter is never found without form, and is therefore
always like such a wife who is never without a husband, never single; and yet, though
being wedded, constantly seeks another man in the place of her husband; she entices
and attracts him in every possible manner till he obtains from her what her husband
has obtained. The same is the case with matter. Whatever form it has, it is disposed
to receive another form; it never leaves off moving and casting off the form which
it has in order to receive another. The same takes place when this second form is
received. It is therefore clear that all corruption, destruction, or defect comes
from matter. Take, e.g., man; his deformities and unnatural shape of limbs; all
weakness, interruption, or disorder of his actions, whether innate or not, originate
in the transient substance, not in the form. All other living beings likewise die
or become ill through the substance of the body and not through its form. Man’s
shortcomings and sins are all due to the substance of the body and not to its form;
while all his merits are exclusively due to his form. Thus the knowledge of God,
the formation of ideas, the mastery of desire and passion, the distinction between
that which is to be chosen and that which is to be rejected, all these man owes
to his form; but eating, drinking, sexual intercourse, excessive lust, passion,
and all vices, have their origin in the substance of his body. Now it was clear that
this was the case, — it was impossible, according to the wisdom of God, that substance
should exist without form, or any of the forms of the bodies without substance,
and it was necessary that the very noble form of man, which is the image and likeness
of God, as has been shown by us, should be joined to the substance of dust and darkness,
the source of all defect and loss. For these reasons the Creator gave to the form
of man power, rule, and dominion over the substance; — the form can subdue the substance,
refuse the fulfilment of its desires, and reduce them, as far as possible, to a
just and proper measure. The station of man varies according to the exercise of
this power. Some persons constantly strive to choose that which is noble, and to
seek perpetuation in accordance with the direction of their nobler part, — their
form; their thoughts are engaged in the formation of ideas, the acquisition of true
knowledge about everything, and the union with the divine intellect which flows
down upon them, and which is the source of man’s form. Whenever they are led by
the wants of the body to that which is low and avowedly disgraceful, they are grieved
at their position, they feel ashamed and confounded at their situation. They try
with all their might to diminish this disgrace, and to guard against it in every
possible way. They feel like a person whom the king in his anger ordered to remove
refuse from one place to another in order to put him to shame; that person tries
as much as possible to hide himself during the time of his disgrace; he perhaps
removes a small quantity a short distance in such a manner that his hands and garments
remain clean, and he himself be unnoticed by his fellow-men. Such would be the conduct
of a free man, whilst a slave would find pleasure in such work; — he would not consider
it a great burden, but throw himself into the refuse, smear his face and his hands,
carry the refuse openly, laughing and singing. This is exactly the difference in
the conduct of different men. Some consider, as we just said, all wants of the body
as shame, disgrace, and defect to which they are compelled to attend: this is chiefly
the case with the sense of touch, which is a disgrace to us according to Aristotle,
and which is the cause of our desire for eating, drinking, and sensuality. Intelligent
persons must, as much as possible, reduce these wants, guard against them, feel
grieved when satisfying them, abstain from speaking of them, discussing them, and
attending to them in company with others. Man must have control over all these desires,
reduce them as much as possible, and only retain of them as much as is indispensable.
His aim must be the aim of man as man, viz., the formation of ideas, and nothing
else. The best and sublimest among them is the idea which man forms of God, angels,
and the rest of the creation according to his capacity. Such men are always with
God, and of them it is said, “Ye are princes, and all of you are children of the
Most High” (Ps. lxxxii. 6). This is man’s task and purpose. Others, however, that
are separated from God form the multitude of fools, and do just the opposite. They
neglect all thought and all reflection on ideas, and consider as their task the
cultivation of the sense of touch, — that sense which is the greatest disgrace:
they only think and reason about eating and love. Thus it is said of the wicked
who are drowned in eating, drinking, and love, “They also have erred through wine,
and through strong drink are out of the way,” etc. (Isa. xxviii. 7), “for all tables
are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean” (ver. 8); again, “And women rule over them” (ibid. iii. 2), — the opposite of that which man was told
in the beginning of the creation, “And for thy husband shall thy desire be, and
he shall rule over thee” (Gen. iii. 16). The intensity of their lust is then described
thus, “Every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife,” etc. (Jer. v. 8); “they are
all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men” (ibid. ix. 2). The whole book of
the Proverbs of Solomon treats of this subject, and exhorts to abstain from lust
and intemperance. These two vices ruin those that hate God and keep far from Him;
to them the following passages may be applied, “They are not the Lord’s” (ibid.
v. 10); “Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth” (ibid. xv. 1). As regards
the portion beginning, “Who can find a virtuous woman?” it is clear what is meant
by the figurative expression, “a virtuous woman.” When man possesses a good sound
body that does not overpower him nor disturb the equilibrium in him, he possesses
a divine gift. In short, a good constitution facilitates the rule of the soul over
the body, but it is not impossible to conquer a bad constitution by training. For
this reason King Solomon and others wrote the moral lessons; also all the commandments
and exhortations in the Pentateuch aim at conquering the desires of the body. Those
who desire to be men in truth, and not brutes, having only the appearance and shape
of men, must constantly endeavour to reduce the wants of the body, such as eating,
love, drinking, anger, and all vices originating in lust and passion; they must
feel ashamed of them and set limits to them for themselves. As for eating and drinking
in so far as it is indispensable, they will eat and drink only as much as is useful
and necessary as food, and not for the purpose of pleasure. They will also speak
little of these things, and rarely congregate for such purposes. Thus our Sages,
as is well known, kept aloof from a banquet that was not part of a religious act,
and pious men followed the example of R. Phineḥas, son of Jair, who never dined
with other persons, and even refused to accept an invitation of R. Jehudah, the
Holy. Wine may be treated as food, if taken as such, but to form parties for the
purpose of drinking wine together must be considered more disgraceful than the unrestrained
conduct of persons who in daylight meet in the same house undressed and naked. For
the natural action of the digestive organ is indispensable to man, he cannot do
without it; whilst drunkenness depends on the free will of an evil man. To appear
naked in the presence of other people is misconduct only according to public opinion,
not according to the dictates of reason, whilst drunkenness, which ruins the mind
and the body of man, reason stamps as a vice. You, therefore, who desire to act
as human beings must keep away from it, and even from speaking of it. On sexual
intercourse, I need not add anything after I have pointed out in the commentary
on Abot (i. 17) how it is treated by our Law, which is the teaching of pure wisdom — no
excuse whatever should induce us to mention it or to speak of it. Thus our Sages
said, that Elisha the prophet is called holy, because he did not think of it, and
consequently never found himself polluted with semen. In a similar manner they say
that Jacob had the first issue of semen for the conception of Reuben. All these
traditional stories have the object of teaching the nation humane conduct. There
is a well-known saying of our Sages, “The thoughts about the sin are more dangerous
than the sin itself.” I can offer a good explanation of this saying: When a person
is disobedient, this is due to certain accidents connected with the corporeal element
in his constitution; for man sins only by his animal nature, whereas thinking is
a faculty of man connected with his form, — a person who thinks sinfully sins therefore
by means of the nobler portion of his self: and he who wrongly causes a foolish
slave to work does not sin as much as he who wrongly causes a noble and free man
to do the work of a slave. For this specifically human element, with all its properties
and powers, should only be employed in suitable work, in attempts to join higher
beings, and not in attempts to go down and reach the lower creatures. You know how
we condemn lowness of speech, and justly so, for speech is likewise peculiar to
man and a boon which God granted to him that he may be distinguished from the rest
of living creatures. Thus God says, “Who gave a mouth to man?” (Exod. iv. 11); and
the prophet declares, “The Lord God hath given me a learned tongue” (Isa. 1. 4).
This gift, therefore, which God gave us in order to enable us to perfect ourselves,
to learn and to teach, must not be employed in doing that which is for us most degrading
and perfectly disgraceful; we must not imitate the songs and tales of ignorant and
lascivious people. It may be suitable to them, but is not fit for those who are
told, “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. xix.
6). Those who employ the faculty of thinking and speaking in the service of that
sense which is no honour to us, who think more than necessary of drink and love,
or even sing of these things: they employ and use the divine gift in acts of rebellion
against the Giver, and in the transgression of His commandments. To them the following
words may be applied: “And I multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared
for Baal” (Hos. ii. 10). I have also a reason and cause for calling our language
the holy language — do not think it is exaggeration or error on my part, it is perfectly
correct — the Hebrew language has no special name for the organ of generation in females
or in males, nor for the act of generation itself, nor for semen, nor for secretion.
The Hebrew has no original expressions for these things, and only describes them
in figurative language and by way of hints, as if to indicate thereby that these
things should not be mentioned, and should therefore have no names; we ought to
be silent about them, and when we are compelled to mention them, we must manage
to employ for that purpose some suitable expressions, although these are generally
used in a different sense. Thus the organ of generation in males is called in Hebrew
gid, which is a figurative term, reminding of the words, “And thy neck is an iron
sinew” (gid) (Isa. xlviii. 4). It is also called shupka, pouring out” (Deut. xxiii.
2), on account of its function. The female organ is called kobah (Num. xxv. 8),
from kebah (Deut. xviii. 3), which denotes
“stomach”; reḥem,” womb,” is the inner
organ in which the foetus develops; ẓoah (Isa. xxviii. 8), “refuse,” is derived
from the verb yaẓa, “he went out”; for “urine” the phrase
meme raglayim, “the water
of the feet” (2 Kings xviii. 17), is used; semen is expressed by shikbat zera‘,
“a layer of seed.” For the act of generation there is no expression whatever in Hebrew:
it is described by the following words only: ba‘al, “he was
master”; shakab, “he lay”; laḳah, “he took”; gillah ‘ervah, “he uncovered the nakedness.” Be not misled
by the word yishgalennah (Deut. xxviii. 30), to take it as denoting that act: this
is not the case, for shegal denotes a female ready for cohabitation. Comp. “Upon
thy right hand did stand the maiden” (shegal) “in gold of Ophir” (Ps. xlv. 10).
Yishgalennah, according to the Kethib, denotes therefore he will take the female
for the purpose of cohabitation.”

We have made in the greater part of this chapter a digression
from the theme of this treatise, and introduced some moral and religious Matter,
although they do not entirely belong to the subject of this treatise, but the course
of the discussion has led to it.